


A Not So Christmas Carol

by Rubyya



Category: Original Work
Genre: Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28263414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubyya/pseuds/Rubyya
Summary: Ryan, a boy from another dimension, meets a nymph on Christmas Eve.
Kudos: 1





	1. Run Away With Me

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Christmas Cherry! I hope you like this story. I tried my hardest to write everyone semi-in character. This also may or may not be the longest story as of me posting this.

Ryan closed the door behind him, not looking back. Despite the late time, the street was lit up brightly by Christmas lights and the homes of people staying up until the morning. Ryan never quite understood why they stayed up, since the whole point of Christmas was for the presents to come during the night, but it made them happy. 

With nary a thought, Ryan made his way down the street and past turns, to a large tree. It was the only one on the block without lights. It was the perfect place to hide away for a bit. Slowly, Ryan made his way up, the large branches providing plenty of handholds. Up and up he went, all the way to the top of the tree, wedging himself between a branch and the trunk. The whole street was spread out below him, a mess of glittering lights.

“Hey there!” a body jumped out from the branch, a tree nymph by the looks of her.

“Hi,” Ryan replied, holding on to his branch a little tighter.

“What are you doing out here all by yourself tonight?” she asked, leaning a little close to Ryan for comfort.

He could only shrug in reply, “I just needed some time alone.”

“Alone? On Christmas Eve?” the nymph seemed to be distressed by this new info.

“I don’t really celebrate Christmas,” this seemed to distress the nymph even more.

“Not everyone celebrates,” Ryan pointed out.

“I do know that,” the nymph tilted her head, as if in thought, “but everyone around this time of the year is with family. It’s a little sad to be all by yourself.”  
“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that,” Ryan muttered.

He felt sort of sad when the nymph’s face fell. Sort of. Then she rebounded right back into an ecstatic state.

“I guess that means I’ll have to get the Christmas spirit into you then!” she decided.

“How?” Ryan asked, “Are you going to go all ghost of Christmas past on me?”

“Exactly!” the nymph announced, pushing Ryan off the branch to the merry street below.


	2. Lost Souls in Revelry

“First stop!” the nymph yelled as Ryan hit the ground.

It hadn’t hurt as much as falling from that height should have, but it still hurt.

“Oh, dear. We do in fact seem to be in the past but I can’t find you.”

“How far back did we go?”

“Six or so years.”

“Well, that explains it. I wasn’t on Earth six years ago.”

The nymph, seemingly unfazed by this new development helped Ryan up, “I guess that means we’ll have to go take a look at other people then.”

Ryan barely got a, “That isn’t how this works,” out before he was being dragged down the street. After too many twists and turns for Ryan to count the nymph stopped in front of a house without any Christmas decorations outside, but a huge Christmas tree inside filled to the brim with ornaments. 

The nymph simply walked straight through the wall, prompting Ryan to follow her. Inside, a large family sat around the tree playing I Spy with the ornaments on the tree. Some, like the bright pink shrimp, were easy enough to guess. The ones with duller colors, like green or blue, gave a much harder time.

“Is there any reason for this?” Ryan asked, rubbing the bruise he was sure was forming on his arm.

“To show you the spirit of Christmas! Spending time with family!” the nymph said as if it was obvious.

Maybe it was, Ryan wasn’t paying that much attention to the nymph. When he simply stared back, the nymph sighed and dragged Ryan by the arm again to a different house. This time it was a father and daughter watching a Christmas movie.

“This movie isn’t very good,” Ryan commented.

“You’re not supposed to be watching the movie,” the nymph pouted, “You’re supposed to be watching the people.”

“Why would I want to watch people? That’s creepy.”

“Did you not spend time with your family like this?”

“No! I’m from a different planet. We celebrated a different festival called the Star Festival because there would always be shooting stars passing by around that time,” Ryan explained.

“Then should you not be happy now because it’s the time of the year for that?” the nymph pondered.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Ryan muttered.

After a few minutes of standing still listening to the still awful movie the nymph broke, and dragged Ryan away, bringing him through some portal-like thing.


	3. Running Wild And Running Free

“Did you realize the futility of this adventure?” Ryan asked, seeing that they were back in the present again.

To his immense disappointment, the answer was no, and he was once again dragged down the street. If there wasn't a bruise there before, there most certainly was now. However, this time Ryan recognized the people the nymph showed him to creepily watch. That didn’t make it any less creepy, Ryan just felt a little better knowing Liam probably would have told him if he’d asked. Liam was dressed up in odd looking robes, well, bedsheets. 

“Are they recreating the nativity scene?”

“Yes they are! Doesn’t it look so fun? Don’t you want to join in?”

Ryan was just about reaching his limit, “No, I want to go home. In fact, we’re in the present, I think I’m going to do just that.”

“Oh no you don’t,” this time Ryan managed to dodge her arm.

“Stop grabbing my arm!”

“If you don’t follow me I have no other choice,” the nymph crossed her arms.

“Fine,” Ryan agreed, “But no more grabbing.”

With the two of them glaring at each other, the nymph led the way through the streets once more, and once more, they simply walked through the walls into someone’s house.

“How are we doing that?” Ryan asked.

“Doing what?” the nymph seemed to be looking around the living room.

“Just going through the walls like that. In fact, how did we even go to the past?”

“Magic.”

“Magic?”

“Magic.”

Ryan was not amused, “You, are not helpful.”

“I know!”

The nymph led the way down a flight of steps to a small basement where Astris lay in a mess of blankets with her siblings laying around her in a big cuddle pile.

“Look at how cute-” the nymph was cut off by Ryan dragging her back up the stairs.

“I am not watching my friend sleep. That’s just a whole other level of creepiness.”

“Well, guess that means we’re moving on to the next stop, the future!” the nymph was back to her usual giddiness.

“You mean the yet to come?” Ryan asked as he let himself get dragged around.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s the ghost of Christmas yet to come, not the ghost of Christmas future.”

“Is that really important?”

“No.”

And with that, the nymph and Ryan walked back through the wall, and through a portal once more.


	4. Two Kids, You And Me

This time they ended up straight in someone’s house. Ryan didn’t recognize the room, but he did recognize the person sitting on the floor. Cameron was sitting there, gift wrapping a load of presents. Or more, attempting to. Calling the presents wrapped was a bit of an overstatement. There was probably more tape than paper on them.

“This is the future?” Ryan was confused, it wasn’t any different from what Cameron was probably doing in the present.

“Yes, though there are less explosions than I expected.”

“You were expecting explosions?”

“More like I hope for them. I never seem to get any though,” the nymph sighed as if this was some great tragedy.

Ryan was way too tired to deal with her much longer, “Ok, we’ve watched Cameron badly wrap presents, can I please go home now?”

“One more stop,” the nymph promised.

They left Cameron’s house and walked back down the street, past twists and turns and lit up houses. It was the future, yet not much had changed. They soon ended up where Ryan’s night had started, his house. Through the walls they went, past the living room, until they were outside his father’s room. The door was open, and Ryan could see his father sitting up in bed, reading a book by lamplight, despite the late time.

“Is that you Ryan?” he asked, looking up from his book, only to be met with empty air, “Ah, just my imagination.”

Ryan was confused, “Why is he up so late?”

“He’s waiting for you to come home. He heard you leave but wants to make sure you get home safely. When you come home I bet he’ll close the door so you don’t see him waiting.”

As if the nymph was psychic, Ryan heard the front door open, and his dad closed his bedroom door. Future Ryan, oblivious, walked into his own room, and simply flopped down on his bed, falling asleep in seconds. Ryan watched as his dad opened his door again a few seconds later. Without a sound, he pulled the blankets over Ryan’s sleeping body, and closed the door. Soon, he was asleep as well.

“Can we go home now?” Ryan asked in a small voice.

With a snap of her fingers, the nymph brought the two of them back to the present.

“If you could snap your fingers why didn’t you just do that before?” Ryan asked, but there was no answer.

In fact, the nymph had disappeared as well. With a sigh, Ryan climbed back down the tree, and made his way home. The front door was unlocked, which was weird now that he thought about it. His dad’s door was closed, but now that Ryan knew what to look for he could see faint light coming from the bottom.

“I know you’re awake,” it was a whisper.

The door opened, and his father stood there, looking almost guilty. The two simply stood there, looking at each other for longer than they would ever admit. Then, all of a sudden, there was a movement from the living room window. Both men raced to the window just in time to see another shooting star, One after another, they fell, lighting up the sky. It was beautiful, and Ryan felt his dad sling an arm around his shoulder. In the background Ryan could have sworn he heard the laughter of a nymph that was too involved for her own good.


End file.
